The massive dead planet, which had drifted in the void for countless ages in silence, suddenly began to tremble under the pulse of a mysterious heartbeat.
At first, the change was so small that it seemed almost insignificant. But then, on a cracked, barren plain, where dust had not moved for trillions of years, a faint green glow shimmered. From that glow, the tiniest strand of grass broke through the lifeless soil.
The blade of grass bent gently as if greeting a forgotten world, and then another appeared, and another. In the blink of an eye, a small patch of green spread across the cracked land. The grass grew thicker, stronger, and brighter with each passing moment. Soon, the patch spread like a wave, racing outward in all directions.
The lifeless, gray surface of this dead planet began to change color almost immediately, transforming into rolling meadows of lush green. It was as if the hand of time itself had brushed across the land, bringing life where there had once been only silence and death. Grass spread like a wave, filling the ground with color and energy.
But the change did not stop there. The heartbeat within the planet quickened, and with it, the pace of transformation accelerated. In some regions, strange buds burst from the soil. At first, they were small and fragile, but in the space of a breath, they grew into towering trees. Their trunks stretched upward like pillars reaching for the sky, branches unfurling with leaves of emerald and gold. Forests spread across the land, thick and wild, as though thousands of years of growth were happening within seconds.
It was as if time on this planet no longer followed the same rules as the rest of the universe. Time here moved faster and faster. Very soon, time on this planet accelerated hundreds and then thousands of times faster than normal. In the blink of an eye, grasslands transformed into endless plains, forests expanded into mighty jungles, and ancient groves that should have taken millennia to form were born in an instant.
Then came the waters.
Cracks opened up in the dry ground, and shining water started to pour out. Small streams joined together, turning into rivers that carved new paths through the land. The rivers filled empty spaces, growing into wide lakes. Soon, those lakes overflowed and connected, becoming great seas. In just a short while, huge oceans appeared, their waves crashing against shores that had only been dry dust moments before.
For a moment, the whole planet shook hard, as if it had suddenly come back to life. From deep under the seas, mountains rose. Their sharp peaks stretched straight high into the sky. In some places, fire exploded upward, and volcanoes poured out rivers of glowing lava that cooled into new land. In colder parts, ice spread fast, building giant glaciers that stood like frozen walls. Snow covered the tallest peaks, while soft mist rolled through the valleys that had only just been born.
Then something even stranger happened. In the middle of the forests and mountains, strange structures started to appear. They did not look like they were built by people, but instead as if the earth itself had created them. Tall towers of crystal grew out of the ground like glowing spears of light, shining faintly in the endless dark. In other places, ruins pushed up from beneath the soil. These ruins were more like whole and complete ancient cities.
Some of the structures that suddenly materialized looked like temples. Their walls were carved with runes that shimmered faintly before vanishing. Other structures resembled palaces of stone and metal.
All of this happened with blinding speed. To an outside observer, it would have looked as if millions of years of natural growth, geological change, and civilization's rise had been condensed in less than ten minutes.
The heartbeat within the core of this planet continued to echo louder and steadier.
In the eyes of Cyr and Serena, the dead planet far away suddenly became alive. They saw the whole change clearly, and for a long time, both of them forgot how to breathe. Their eyes stayed wide open, their bodies stiff, and their hearts raced as if struck by thunder. The feeling was too heavy and too shocking.
It was only when their lungs began to burn, almost like they were suffocating, that they finally came back to their senses and gasped for air, taking deep breaths one after another. Even then, their chests still rose and fell quickly, and their eyes did not move away from the distant planet.
To them, this scene was something that should have been impossible. A land long dead was now showing the beauty of life again. To see grass sprout, trees rise, rivers form, seas spread, and mountains grow in only a few breaths of time was not something ordinary eyes could accept. It was too much and too unreal. Follow current novels on NovᴇlFirᴇ(.)nᴇt
Alex, however, saw none of this. His eyes could not pierce through the endless layers of void and darkness. His senses were not sharp enough to catch what was happening so many light years away. To him, everything was still calm, ordinary, and unchanged. He only saw Cyr and Serena staring into the void with faces full of shock.
But even if Alex could not see, he still felt one thing.
He felt the strange heartbeat of that planet.
In his view, those heartbeats were steady, deep, and heavy, as if they were the heartbeats of a giant creature sleeping under the earth for countless years.
"Serena, can you tell me what is going on? Why are you staring at the sky without blinking? And those heartbeats… who do they belong to? Are you perhaps looking at the creature those heartbeats come from?"
Alex could not hold back his curiosity and finally asked. The longer he listened to those steady, powerful beats, the stronger his desire became to know their true origin.
In fact, it was not only him. Every warrior at the Life Creation Stage and Death Domination Stage could hear and feel those heartbeats echoing inside their bodies. All of them were drawn to that strange sound. Yet, no matter how hard they tried, none of them could see or sense where the heartbeats were truly coming from.